Modi’s rival caught defacing posters, freed

The Gujarat police have arrested Madhusudan Mistry, Congress candidate against the BJP’s PM nominee Narendra Modi in Vadodara for “vandalising and damaging public property”.

Mistry was caught trying to tear down Modi’s poster to put up his own. The police claimed that Mistry had removed BJP posters depicting Narendra Modi. Mistry was later released on bail.

But Mistry, who is a close aide of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and was in charge of the party’s election preparations in UP, denied the charge, saying he was just putting up one of his own posters.

Earlier, the BJP, as part of a high-profile campaign for its PM nominee, put up hundreds of hoardings and posters of Modi across the city.

The Congress fielded Mistry to make the one-sided contest more competitive. Earlier, it selected its city unit president Narendra Rawat through the primary system.

Mistry claimed after his release: “We had requested the municipal corporation to give us space for putting up posters and hoardings, but it allotted the entire space in the city to the BJP.”

He accused the civic body and the police and district administrations of partisan attitude as they were working at the behest of the ruling party in the state. “We will bring this to the notice of the Election Commission.”